Jun Sawada
Jun Sawada (沢田純 Sawada Jun, February 21, 1952 - October 1, 2018) was a Japanese actor and former sumo wrestler. Sawada was best known for his role as Mr. Kanehiko Kurohata in the "Mitsuri no Kuma" series, the original narrator in the "Sumo Rangers" tokusatsu series, and for holding the title of "The Fattest Actor in Japan (日本一の巨漢俳優 Nihon'ichi no kyokan haiyū)." It's difficult to calculate Jun Sawada's exact weight, but he was often assumed to weigh around 650 pounds or more at the time of his death. Jun Sawada died from stomach cancer on October 1st, 2018. His death was mourned widely amongst Wonder Production. Biography Early life Jun Sawada was born on February 21, 1952 in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture. Jun was raised by his godmother, a kind old lady only known as "Miyo-sama." During his years in elementary school, Miyo-sama would occasionally press Jun Sawada into losing weight because according to her, if he stayed fat all his life, then he would never find love, nor kids nor a legacy for them to follow. While Miyo-sama had just always wanted her godson to be thin and handsome, Jun would always turn her pleads down, as he solely wanted to be fat to the end of his days and be remembered as a legendary yokozuna. It was not until his highschool years that Jun Sawada finally decided to start his diet, having fallen deeply in love with a girl from another classroom and understanding what his just-deceased godmother had told him all along. Jun Sawada tried everything to lose the pounds he had gained and impress the love of his life and finally make his dream of marrying her come true, but near the end of his college life, Jun Sawada soon saw himself forced to drop his diet upon finding his platonic love flirting with another guy, breaking Jun Sawada's heart, as the loveliest girl he had ever met had been taken away from him. Sumo wrestling career Heartbroken after his failed diet and graduating from college, Jun Sawada was left with no alternative but to start a career as a sumo wrestler, going under the ring name of 'Sawamaru Bakunyuuyama '(爆乳山沢丸 Bakunyūyama Sawamaru), with the "bakunyu" part referring to his huge man boobs. Following a sumo bout that was broadcast live in May 1977, Jun Sawada took his belly off his mawashi and, taking advantage that no one was around him, started playing with his belly for a while. During that instance, a cameraman had unknowingly left a camera on, which had recorded what Sawada was doing and he, embarassed, told the network not to show that awkward moment on TV. Despite his formidable bouts and skills, Sawada ended his 5 years of sumo wrestling career, as he was starting to lose interest in the sport. Acting career After retiring from his sumo career in 1979, Jun Sawada began his quest for a new job. In the process, he visited several TV studios, where he realized that his true life ambition was theatre and acting. This eventually led to Yōsuke Hiramatsu hiring Jun into "Independent Actors United" (later known as Wonder Production) Much to Jun Sawada's dismay, the embarassing footage of Jun Sawada playing with his belly was shown in 1981, when Sawada had already began his acting career. As displayed in the footage, Jun's belly was so big, it led to the press qualifying Jun Sawada as "The Fattest Actor in Japan." Jun commented that he had no idea that one of the cameras was on. In 1985, Jun Sawada confessed that he had an overwhelming crush on fellow voice actress Reiko Sakai. Following the death of Wataru Sasaki in 1986, Jun and Reiko eventually got married in 1988 and had two undisclosed children. Jun and Reiko had been married for 17 years, but as a result of several discussions between Reiko Sakai and her sister-in-law Kiriko Sawada, the couple divorced in 2005. This divorce left Jun Sawada severely heartbroken, and in September of that exact same year, he was caught attempting suicide by gunshot. Later in 2006, Sawada claimed that "he had finally gotten over it, after a month or two of crying like an idiot and facing that empty feeling." In 1997, Jun Sawada established a partnership with scriptwriter and director Maiko Suzuki, which led him to appear in her comedy series "Mitsuri no Kuma" as greedy landlord Mr. Kanehiko Kurohata in 1999. Jun Sawada would leap to worldwide fame thanks to this role. After the Mitsuri no Kuma series was cancelled in 2007 following Andy Liao's death, Jun Sawada stepped down from Wonder Production to start working as a freeloader without being represented by any agency, although maintaining his link with Wonder. Accordion skills Throughout his life, Jun Sawada has shown great ability to play accordion, his first time playing the instrument was during his second year of high school and his skill has grown better since then. Jun Sawada would occasionaly demonstrate his accordion skills when incarnating Mr. Kurohata. The character's accordion's sound was completely real, as having he wrote all of the songs he played in the series, he knew their whole scores and lyrics perfectly. Cancer situation and death In 2016, Jun Sawada was diagnosed with stomach cancer as a result of his smoking habit, and his doctor strictly forbid him from smoking from then on due to this cancer. Maiko Suzuki found out about it and decided that it was about time Jun Sawada dropped the Mr. Kurohata character forever. At 6:00 AM October 1st, 2018, a series of videos and posts mourning the passing of a mysterious man that was related to Kiriko Sawada began to appear. Reiko Sakai uploaded an Instagram video story giving condolences to her former sister-in-law. Seiyuu Unit Takatomo uploaded a short video onto their official Twitter account, where Tomoka Taya could be seen crying while leaning against Hiromi Takagi's arm. Junpei Yokozuna also spoke on the matter in a short clip he uploaded onto his official YouTube channel. 3 hours later, Ryō Takeda eventually decided to clear up the dizzied minds of his fans by confirming that this mysterious relative of Kiriko was, in fact, Jun Sawada, who died at 3:00 AM of that day at 66 years old as a result of a stomach cancer that he had been battling since August up until then. 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